Utopian A Fresh Feel For An Old Idea

To understand why Utopian.io is such an amazing platform, it is necessary to first understand the nature of open source software. The term open source has been around for quite sometime now, and even if you are one of those people who either partially understands, or doesn't get it at all, chances are you would have heard the term.

An open source software program is essentially an application which broadcasts its source code, in order that freelance contributors can add and improve upon the code.

It is easy to glaze over when you hear the above statement. I wouldn't blame you if you did, because that is exactly what I used to do when reading about open source software. However open source is not just for people who understand computer code at an advanced level, it is that, however Utopian have made it so much more.

Early Open Source Examples

Perhaps to understand the ethos, or indeed the point of open source projects, it is useful to look at a small part of its history.

In the early years of automobile manufacture a man named George B. Seldon filed a patent with the US Patent Office for the 2-cylinder gas engine. This was essentially the first portable internal combustion engine and was used in the very first motor cars.

However in 1911 the industrialist Henry Ford, successfully challenged the patent, and thus was born the Motor Vehicles Manufacturers Association. This group of companies agreed that any patents surrounding the advancement of the motor engine, would be shared without financial compensation, or fear of lawsuit.

This allowed the development of the internal combustion engine across the board. It meant that no one company, could build a new more advanced engine without everyone else having full permission to use and modify that design.

Open Source Computer Projects

Before 1974 all computer software was open source, that is to say it was legally impossible to file a patent to protect a computer program.

Whilst this may seem strange, and even a little shocking, it pays to remember that computing was still in its infancy, and the majority of companies did not use computers to run their businesses.

With the licensing of software code, came the cessation of the practice of releasing source code, which is easily readable by a human being, to releasing compiled machine code, which is not.

This led to Richard Stallman starting the Free Software Foundation, and so was born the modern concept of open source software.

Nowadays open source has evolved, and the term does not just encompass free software. There are many commercial projects that are open source, in fact Steemit is just one of those projects.

The Steemit source code is freely available to anyone who is interested, modifications can be made to it and pull requests can be put forward so as to implement the changes a person might make.

However as I hinted above open source is more than about being able to read and manipulate code, and Utopian is the platform that brings a 21st century feel to the entire movement.

Why Open Source?

Part of the reason why the open source movement is so endearing, is that projects that don't sit so well within a corporate structure can really blossom and take flight in an open source setting.

Imagine you work in the concept division of a computer games company. You and your team create and develop a concept for a new game.

It goes all the way through the company, from concept, to design, to budget approval, coding, marketing, and finally release.

In this corporate structure there are some very clear measures of success. The first measure of success is if the game is finished and ready for release by a certain time. This then leads to the second measure of success if the game can be sold for more money than it cost to develop it.

Finally, if the game makes over x amount, then it can be developed further and new iterations of the game will be released.

So within our fictitious company, you have come up with the idea for a new orks & goblins game, it is a truly brilliant idea and you are hopeful that your game will be made and become a household name.

However before that programming has to start, the company you work uses deadlines to ensure that projects don't overrun.

They use a formula that uses a profit/loss algorithm which tells them how long they can feasibly allow any one project to be in the development stage.

Unfortunately for your game, it is so ambitious that after a few months of developers trying to get an early working version of just a few levels of your game, they have not managed to do so.

The project is shelved and nobody outside of your company ever hears about it and that's the end of that.

This kind of scenario is not unique to the computer industry, it is a simple economic fact of many industries. There is only so much time that a company can afford to spend on any one project, before expecting that project to yield some profit.

So open source projects circumvent this problem as often there are no such commercial deadlines to be met. Plus projects that aren't necessarily profitable can still be developed. What this means is that projects tend to get judged more on their usefulness over their potential profitability.

A Utopian Idea For A Utopian Ideal

So why is Utopian particularly special, what new benefit does it bring to the open source table? To answer that question, let's take another brief look at our fictitious games company.

This time you have the same idea, which you sketch out in great detail. You collaborate with a design team and your idea is sketched out just as before.

The only difference this time, is that the amount of time taken to get a working level of your game is not prohibitive. Another benefit is that your game has more brains working on it, and not just the ones that were employed by the games company.

Instead of a company, there is Utopian, a platform open to all to create open source projects.

OK you might say; but I've heard of this thing called Github, what's the difference between Github and Utopian?

Well Github is aimed more towards the developer, as such the interface is perhaps not as inviting to a non-techie person. Plus of course, Github doesn't give you the chance to submit non-code based ideas and solutions.

Utopian is different because everyone can be involved at all levels of a project.

Plus of course we have the absolute unique feature that you can be instantly rewarded by submitting your ideas through Utopian, thus marrying the ethos of open source with the reality of capitalism.

This is indeed Utopia, the Utopian team have created a platform whereby your time can and will be rewarded accordingly. By simply logging into Utopian and choosing a category to submit an idea to, and then posting to that category, the Utopian.io Steemit account will vote for your article.

The more valuable your idea, the more valuable the vote you receive will be. Even now in its early stages, the votes can be worth anything from a couple of bucks to a few hundred dollars.

Join The Party

So why not head over to Utopian.io now and log in using Steemconnect and browse the topics on there. This particular article is in the topic of visibility for Utopian.io (itself an open source project).

I feel that my 3200 + following, plus my general good ranking on Google for my articles makes the visibility category an obvious one for me. Although I plan to submit plans in the idea development and bug hunting topics as well.

Platforms like Utopian are making me realise that Steemit founder Dan Larimer's dream of Steemit taking over the world, is fully underway.

Long live Steemit, long live Utopian, long live the sidechain, and long live the revolution!

*Further reading:

History of free and open-source software

Cited:
Utopian
Free Software Foundation
Github

HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT UTOPIAN.IO YET? ARE YOU INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED IN OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS AND BEING REWARDED FOR THAT INVOLVEMENT? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Cryptogee

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Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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